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Potentiometer revision? Aetna Pollack?


stupidhead

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So yesterday I was able to spend some time in the work shop. Earlier this year I had picked up a nice set of 2ax and started the refurb process and never actually gutted them to recap and work the pots. The pots, once extracted are yet another version of the familiar Aetna Pollack pot. I have read many threads about AR pots and reclaiming them if salvageable, but have not seen a reference to this variation.A few things seemed different such as the metal housing was a sort of shiny finish as opposed to the black finish I am used to see. Also the dial stem was not plastic but metal of some sort. But what surprised me the most was the wiper. In the pic below you can sort of see the contact point which seems to have been somehow added to the wiper, not just a stamped raised area of the tip. At first glance I thought maybe somehow there were two wipers stacked on top of each other...

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but upon taking it apart I realize there are two pieces, but are distinctly different. Here is a pic showing the two seperated and the faces you see would have been contacting each other.

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So I proceed to clean and polish for reassembly. The contact points were in excellent shape by the way.

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and one more attempt to show you the wipers stacked on each other..

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The vintage of this set is '74 and I guess my question is are these the best style of these pots, and should I put them aside for my AR 3 refurb?

side note- the name Aetna Pollack was not stamped in the housing as I am used to seeing, but just Pollack.

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Hi folks,

Have I committed some sort of faux pas here? Maybe I am too new to this and these are common, but I just haven't seen any other references to this style pot. I am anxious to know if these are the pinnacle of these pots so I can use now in current project (AR 2ax and/or AR4x) or wait until I do my 3s. They do seem to have a smoother feel to the dial when assembled after cleaning and greasing. MM readings are spot on.

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I have not seen that style of wiper before. Of course, I've only seen pots out of my 3a's and 4x's and they have been identical to what I've seen before. Yours indeed are a bit different but I can shed no light on them. Functionally they are the same and certainly share a common design.

der

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These are the later AR AE pot. They are not really rare, but it is one of the last iterations used in AR speakers. There are obvious improvements, such as the metal shaft and improved wiper. (Along with the usual corrosion issues, I've seen a number of the earlier pots with melted plastic shafts.)

Roy

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Here's another variation. The wiper is much more substantial,

but design limits the number of times it can be disassembled.

I used a brass screw to reattach the disk.

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